Avercamp, Hendrick

Winter Landscape with Iceskaters

Crowds of people are depicted on the ice in a scene that stretches far
into the distance. There is considerable variety among the figures,
both in clothing and in what they are doing. Some of those portrayed
are having fun, while others appear to be working. Avercamp has
included several daring details, such as the couple making love, the
bare buttocks and the man urinating.
Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters
painted around 1608, is one of the earliest large winter
landscapes in the Rijksmuseum.

Fun on the Ice

People are enjoying themselves in different ways. Of course, many are
skating - on their own, in rows, or in pairs. Some people are playing
kolf, a game resembling ice hockey. Others are playing with sleighs
and sailing on the ice. For some the daily toil never stops. They are
shown here engaged in their work. There is a reed cutter carrying a
bunch of reeds; the eel fisher carries his trident over his shoulder
and the fish in a net. Beside the brewery, recognisable from its
signboard, a hole has been made in the ice so that water can be drawn
out for brewing beer. A ragged figure is begging for bread.

Eel fisher
Reed cutter
Beggar

On slippery ice

Avercamp has included several anecdotes in his winter landscape. We
see a bare behind emerging from a small boat, as well as the figure of
a man relieving himself against a tree, another in a ditch, and a
couple making love in a hay stack. The way the painter has signed this
work is also humorous: on a tumbledown building in the right
foreground the name 'Haenricus Av' appears on the wall like graffiti,
with a small figure beside it. It has been suggested that fun on the
ice refers to the slipperiness of the human condition. This would
imply that the painting was meant as a lesson on morality. But whether
this was what Avercamp intended is impossible to tell.

Bare behinds
House with signature

A Winter painter

Avercamp painted winter scenes throughout the year, partly based on
sketches and partly from memory. Like other seventeenth-century
artists he did not go outside to paint from nature, but worked indoors
in his studio. He combined his sketches to form a single composition
with the result that his perspective is not always accurate. In this
painting the perspective is not quite right either. The trees in the
foreground and the house in the centre appear to be at eye level,
while the brewery in the foreground is seen from above, from a kind of
bird's-eye view. A high view point of this type is characteristic of
early seventeenth-century landscapes such as this scene on the ice.

Brewery from above
Houses at eye level

Bruegel

Avercamp's typically Dutch winter scene has Flemish predecessors. This
appears from the composition as well as from the bird trap in the
foreground. The bird trap with its cage on a small stick is an exact
copy of a well-known painting of that time by
Pieter Bruegel.
Avercamp also appears to have emphasised the Flemish connection by painting the
coat of arms of the city of Antwerp on the brewery building. The
three-dimensional effect in this picture is remarkable. With its
extreme depth Avercamp manages to include countless figures and
anecdotal scenes.

Bird Trap
Coat of arms of Antwerp

Atmosphere

The weather is hazy, the light filtered. The colours fade into the
distance and shapes become vague. In this 'atmospheric perspective'
depth is suggested by change of colour. The trees to the left and
right of the small boat in the foreground emphasise the sense of depth
and form a repoussoir. The viewer's gaze is carried into the distance,
along the thickly frozen river. There are occasional red accents of
colour. In the foreground a small dog appears to be chasing its own
shadow. In fact this is the first painted version of the dog that
Avercamp apparently placed in the wrong position. Over the years the
overpainting has become transparent.

Dog with shadow, and boat as repoussoir

Repoussoir: the word comes from the French 'repousser', meaning to push
back. A repoussoir is an element in a composition that appears to force
the remainder into the background. Large objects or figures in the
foregound are ideal repoussoirs. They enhance the sense of depth.
Trees and curtains are especially common repoussoirs.